1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of communications connection devices.
2. The Prior Art
It has been the practice of communications providers, such as telephone companies, to provide in-wall wiring for customers when so requested. The in-wall wiring includes the actual telecommunications cable as well as selectively located junction boxes through which the telecommunications cable passes. The in-wall wiring phase is completed during the building construction prior to the application and finishing of the wallboard. After the wallboard has been applied and finished, including painting, the communications services provider returns and at those junction boxes which the customer has decided to have activated, the service representative mechanically affixes a telecommunications socket to the in-wall telecommunications cable. The telecommunications cable socket is mounted on an outwardly oriented surface of a face plate which is then connected to the junction box for mechanical rigidity and stability. For those junction boxes which the customer has initially decided not to activate, a passive face plate is provided which merely closes off in a cosmetically acceptable fashion the service aperture to the junction box located behind the wallboard. Subsequently, if the customer decides to activate any of the passive junction boxes, a return visit by the service representative is necessary. On this return visit the service representation removes the passive wall plate, and installs an active wall plate including the outwardly oriented telecommunications socket of the type previously discussed.
The connection between the standard telecommunications sockets of the type previously discussed is conventionally a screw-type connection which requires the service representative to mechanically break into the multi-conductor telecommunications cable, select the desired ones of the conductors within that cable, mechanically remove the installation from those selected conductors, and then affix the selected bare conductors under the screw-type terminals and screw the terminals down to achieve proper electrical conductivity between the socket and the telecommunications cable. This process is expensive in terms of the labor, because at least two visits are required to install and activate the telecommunications system. A first visit is required to install the telecommunications cable and the junction boxes in the wall behind the wallboard. At least one more visit is subsequently necessary wherein the service representative returns and activates those junction boxes, as described above, that the customer initially wants to have activated. Additionally, if the customer subsequently wishes to activate more junction boxes or de-activate some of the junction boxes, another service call is required by a trained representative of the communications company.
In pre-fabricated wall construction it is, of course, not possible to install the telecommunications cable in junction boxes when the walls that are received at the construction site, but they must be installed during the manufacturing process. No satisfactory solution exists at the present time to the problem of pre-wiring pre-fabricated building structures, in that, among other reasons, the communications company is not part of the manufacturing process and as such is not available during the manufacturing cycle for the installation of the telecommunications cable in the pre-fabricated wall members.
Thus, there is an unsolved need for a system and apparatus whereby in conventional construction return visits by the trained service representative might be completely eliminated by enabling the customer to, in a foolproof fashion and without training, activate or deactivate selected junction boxes which have been installed and wired with cable during the construction phases. In the pre-fabricated building market there is also a need for a system and apparatus whereby telecommunications cable might be installed in the pre-fabricated building members during the manufacturing phase and then shipped on an interstate basis throughout the country and such that subsequently selected junction boxes within the pre-wired pre-fabricated wall structures could be quickly and easily activated by either the local telecommunications company representative or personnel involved in erection of the pre-fabricated structure without requring those personnel to receive any significant degree of training.